Haslam’s approval
high and steady at 58 percent, but almost nobody likes Congress
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Tennessee voters have warmed a little bit toward
President Barack Obama on the eve of his departure from the White House, but a majority
still disapprove of his performance as president, the latest MTSU Poll shows.
Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s
approval rating remains high and steady, and approval remains relatively high for
the Tennessee General Assembly and Tennessee Republican U.S. senators Lamar
Alexander and Bob Corker. Approval of Congress, though, is in the basement.
The MTSU Poll was conducted between Sept.
28 and Oct. 2, following the first presidential candidate debate. The sample of
600 registered Tennessee voters were surveyed via random telephone calls to
landline and mobile phones. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
Obama’s
approval up, but still below 50 percent
Asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of
the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?”, the poll found that:
·
42
percent approve (up from 31 percent in January)
·
53
percent disapprove (down from 61 percent in January)
·
5
percent don’t know or don’t answer (8 percent in January)
This is the highest approval rating for
Obama in Tennessee since the spring 2010 MTSU poll, when approval also stood at
42 percent. Obama’s only higher marks in the state came in spring of 2009, when
53 percent approved shortly after his first inauguration, which was the only
time a majority of Tennesseans said they approved of the job he was doing.
“While President Obama fared a little
better with Tennessee voters in this MTSU Poll than he has in the recent past,
it remains clear that in their final assessment, more Tennesseans disapprove of
the job he has done as president than approve,” said Dr. Ken Blake, director of
the poll at Middle Tennessee State University.
A recent CNN/ORC poll of Americans nationwide
conducted between Sept. 28 and Oct. 2, the same timeframe as the most recent
MTSU Poll, found that President Obama’s approval rating stands at 55 percent
nationally, with 44 percent who say that they disapprove[1].
While unpopular in Tennessee, Obama will
leave office with a higher approval rating across the state than his predecessor
did. Only 32 percent of respondents to the Fall 2008 MTSU Poll expressed
approval of the job then-President George W. Bush was doing, and 59 percent
disapproved.
“This is a rare instance where Obama is
outperforming Bush in Tennessee,” said Dr. Jason Reineke, associate director of
the poll. “But it is important to remember that Bush was saddled with an
unpopular war and a global economic crisis at the end of his presidency.”
Governor Haslam’s streak of popularity
continues
Gov. Bill Haslam again had the strongest
support of any elected official asked about as part of the MTSU Poll. Among the
state’s registered voters:
·
58
percent approve (unchanged from 58 percent in January)
·
25
percent disapprove (virtually unchanged from 22 percent in January)
Reineke called Haslam’s reviews
remarkable. “Governor Haslam’s popularity endures the many tests presented by
national, state, and local developments in a way that is uncommon in American
politics,” Reineke said.
The poll was taken before Haslam’s recent
announcement that he would not be voting for GOP presidential nominee Donald
Trump and recommended that Trump step aside to allow vice presidential nominee
Mike Pence to lead the Republican ticket.
While Haslam had remained noncommittal
about whether he supported Trump throughout the campaign, his public rebuff of
Trump followed the recent release of a 2005 video in which Trump made vulgar
comments that critics say appear to condone sexual assault against women. Trump
issued a series of apologies, but Haslam joined a number of GOP leaders across
the nation to publicly withdraw their support.
Most approve of Tennessee General
Assembly
Over half – 52 percent – of Tennessee
voters approve of the job the Tennessee General Assembly is doing, while only
27 percent disapprove. These numbers are essentially unchanged from the 48
percent who approved and 26 percent who disapproved in January.
“The Tennessee General Assembly seems to
have generally withstood any significant political fallout from recent missteps
and scandals, including the ouster of former state representative Jeremy
Durham,” Blake said.
Tennessee voters like their U.S.
Senators, dislike U.S. Congress in general
[1]
See http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/06/politics/obama-approval-rating-new-high/
and http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2016/images/10/05/obama.pdf.pdf
Approval ratings for Republican U.S. Sens.
Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker are identical to each other, and statistically
unchanged from January’s poll. The poll showed 45 percent of registered
Tennessee voters approve of the job each senator is doing, while 33 percent
disapprove. In January, 42 percent approved of job Alexander was doing while 35
percent disapproved, and 47 percent approved of the job Corker was doing while
31 percent disapproved. In both polls, the rest say they don’t know or refuse
to answer the question.
The poll was taken before Trump’s recent
announcement that Corker was being added to his national security advisory
council. The same day of the announcement, news broke about Trump’s vulgar
comments about women in the 2005 video, prompting Corker to issue a statement
that said Trump’s comments “are obviously very inappropriate and offensive and
his apology was absolutely necessary.”
“Despite the two Republicans’ different
approaches to the presidential race, with Sen. Corker being a more vocal
supporter of Donald Trump’s candidacy and Sen. Alexander being somewhat more
reserved, there is almost no difference in how Tennessee voters view their U.S.
senators, and more approve than disapprove,” Blake said.
The U.S. Congress in general, however,
continues to receive horrendous approval ratings from Tennessee voters. Only 17
percent say that they approve of the job Congress is doing, while 75 percent
disapprove. These ratings are similar to the 12 percent approval and 80 percent
disapproval assessments Tennessee voters gave Congress in the January MTSU
Poll.
“We’re
running out of adjectives to describe how poorly Tennesseans view the U.S.
Congress,” said Reineke.
Methodology
Telephone
interviews for the poll were completed by Issues & Answers Network Inc.
from among a random sample of registered Tennessee voters age 18 and over
between Sept. 28 and Oct. 2, 2016. Data were collected using Tennessee
statewide voter registration sample of 51 percent landline and 49 percent cell
phones. Quotas by gender and Grand Region were implemented. Data were weighted
based on respondent age to ensure the data represent Tennessee registered
voters. The survey’s overall error margin of 4 percentage points indicates one
can be 95 percent confident that the actual population figure lies within 4
percentage points (in either direction) of the poll result. Error margins for
subgroups can be larger, depending on the subgroup’s size.
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